The present invention relates to simple, light-weight machine for digging trenches, so as to drain and dry soils, particularly in agricultural land.
In order to preserve crops sown on low-lying land, farmers usually have to dig trenches in order to drain the water from the land, so as to prevent the seeds in the soil from rotting. Similarly, trenches are also dug to prevent torrential rains from furrowing or gullying sloping land.
In earlier times or primitive cultures the trenches were customarily dug with pick-axes, which is time-consuming hard work, or more efficiently with a plow. But the use of a plow has the disadvantage that it tends to build up earth on one side of the trench dug, which may in turn cover an adjacent furrow, into which seeds have been sown. This, in turn, has a detrimental effect on the crop, and furthermore trenches dug in this way are usually irregular, and tend to be filled up with earth particularly in bad weather, due to the tendency of moist earth to slip.